A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked an Obama administration policy to detain Central American mothers and children who say they are fleeing violence in their home countries.
In a 40-page decision, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg put the controversial detention policy on ice pending a full hearing. He reasoned the policy of detaining current asylum-seekers in an effort to future immigrants was “likely” to be deemed unlawful.
“The policy causes irreparable harm to mothers and children seeking asylum,” Boasberg concluded.
The case was brought by 10 mothers who, accompanied by minor children, fled persecution in their Central American home countries. In the fall of 2014, after crossing the border and entering the United States without documentation, each was apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Each subsequently went on to establish a “credible fear” of persecution.
One mother had fled El Salvador with her 5-year-old and 8-month-old daughters.
But rather than be released pending further action, as once was the practice, the broken families were detained for several weeks or months at the Karnes County Residential Facility in Texas. The mothers argued that a “No Release Policy” adopted by the Department of Homeland Security kept them locked up, as Boasberg put it, “to send a message that such immigrants, coming en masse, are unwelcome.”
Boasberg questioned the government’s reasoning, saying that the refuge-seekers “are entitled to the protection of the Due Process Clause, especially when it comes to deprivations of liberty.”
Boasberg further cast doubt on the administration’s national security claims, and pointedly added that officials “presented little empirical evidence, moreover, that their detention policy even achieves its only desired effect – i.e., that it actually deters potential immigrants from Central America.”
Judy Rabinovitz, deputy director of the American Civil Liberty Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement that “this ruling means that the government cannot continue to lock up families without an individualized determination that they pose a danger or flight risk that requires their detention."
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